Favorites May 21 2021

Today’s newsletter gets a little Apple heavy in the middle, but it’s not often that Tim Cook testifies under oath.

Mike Duncan @mikeduncan

A reminder that the founders of Texas share the shameful distinction with Napoleon of re-legalizing slavery in territories where it had been constitutionally abolished. The Texas independence movement was directly linked to Mexico's emancipation decree of 1829.

Clint Smith @ClintSmithIII

There is a state sanctioned effort to prevent students from understanding that the contemporary landscape of inequality didn’t just emerge out of nowhere, but is the direct result of a history that created it. https://t.co/ewSBu1K6OA https://t.co/Qr7XC2FGNT

Yikes, I’m not sure I had fully grasped either that Texas was one of very few places to re-legalize slavery nor that it was the point of Texas’ independence movement.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

As someone who was born and raised in New York City but has been away for nearly twenty years, it will never stop behind funny to be that “put garbage in bins instead of covering the streets in trash” is a cutting-edge urban policy idea there.

By the way, in Amsterdam they're even further in the future.

Ben Thompson @benthompson

A creator sells a Ticketed Space for $5. The creator, who people are willing to pay for, gets $2.80. Twitter, who facilitated the connection and created the product, gets $0.70. Apple/Google, who leverage OS API control into a tax on all activity, do nothing and get $1.50.

The Verge @verge

Twitter previews Ticketed Spaces, says it’ll take a 20 percent cut of sales https://t.co/YX2ngOKiUc https://t.co/ieAw2eBJgZ

Ticketed spaces are sort of like paid live audio chats. Ben Thompson later clarified what he meant by Apple doing 'nothing'

nilay patel @reckless

Apple, from the very top on down, continues to insist that what happens inside of third-party apps is their space to control. Once you bring an iPhone home from Best Buy, it is ABSOLUTELY PACKED with ways Apple tries to get you to buy more things from it directly.

Adi Robertson @thedextriarchy

Why can’t apps direct users to deals on their website? “It would be akin to Apple down at Best Buy saying ‘Best Buy, put in a sign there where we are advertising that you can go across the street and get an iPhone,’” says Cook.

The Settings app has literally an ad in it right at the top. If the App store is like a physical store, then within the app is once you take the product home.

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal

I call bs

Ina Fried @inafried

Do you believe the App Store is profitable @tim_cook “yes I do” but reiterates the company has never tried to determine how profitable.

If Kai Ryssdal is calling you a liar... and Yglesias is saying you're making a mistake, maybe you should rethink things?

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal

I call bs. Again.

Stephen Nellis @StephenNellis

Cook says he doesn't remember the exact number of dollars Google pays to be the default search engine on the iPhone and says he doesn't know if the DoJ estimate is correct. He also says he doesn't know why Google did the deal. "You would have to ask them what they pay for."

What? Is this the only transaction Apple makes he's confused about, or is he also unsure why anyone pays for Airpods Max?

Ezra Klein @ezraklein

Violent crime is spiking. Homicides in cities were up by 25-40 percent in 2020, the largest single-year increase since 1960. And 2021 isn’t looking any better. This is a crisis on its own terms. But it’s also a crisis for the broader liberal project in two downstream ways.

This statistic was pretty stunning to me, and the secondary effects are arguably worse. But Ezra also has some good news, and some specific policy recommendations.

Figma @figmadesign

This is a story of a Figma bug that wasn’t a bug at all. In November of 2019, one of our users reported this: ⁝ MW

Wild thread if you want to learn about how 1970s decisions about computers still lurk in the background today.

Neoliberal 🌐 @ne0liberal

Apparently this is Chinese anti-Biden propaganda, but it kinda just makes Biden seem metal af

Wow, and the iron throne of guns? dang. For a parallel, here's some anti FDR Propoganda.

Downtown Palo Alto this evening